How Databook Increased Data Visibility 10x with Row Zero

Databook is a high growth, AI sales platform that depends on fast, reliable data to run its business; however, Databook’s legacy BI stack slowed teams down, making it difficult to access data and answer questions in real time.

In order to improve accessibility and speed, Databook connected its Databricks warehouse directly to Row Zero spreadsheets, giving teams immediate access to live data in a powerful spreadsheet they already know how to use. According to CTO Ivan Galea, “Visibility into the business and the speed of decision-making has increased 10x or more.”

Results at a Glance:

• 10x Increase in organizational data visibility.
• 100% Transition from traditional BI tools to Row Zero for internal and external reporting.
• Self-Serve Success: Teams securely self-serve from the data warehouse without engineering intervention.

The Challenge: Breaking the Data Bottleneck

At many organizations, data is a locked resource, creating a bottleneck where only data engineers can access data in the data warehouse and answer complex questions.

“The problem with most organizations is that accessibility to data is uneven, leading to pockets of visibility," Galea explained. "This has a direct impact to productivity and employee effectiveness. We just needed immediate and uniform access, where everybody can ask questions".

Waiting for an engineer to pull data or build a specific dashboard was no longer a viable way to operate, because it was too slow and constraining.

The Solution: Direct, Self-Serve Access to the Warehouse

Databook moved away from traditional BI tools and adopted Row Zero as their primary interface for their Databricks warehouse.

Row Zero is a cloud-based spreadsheet that connects directly to the data warehouse and enables users to work with massive datasets while maintaining enterprise-grade security controls. This allows anyone, even those who don’t know SQL, to explore, analyze, and report on data instantly.

“Everyone knows how to use a spreadsheet,” said Galea. “The beauty of the tool is that it's very democratic... you can access data of any size and start deriving some insight.”

Key Pillars of the Row Zero Implementation:

• Democratized Access: Team members across the organization can perform their own deep dives using familiar spreadsheet functions and features on live warehouse data.
• No Data Bottleneck: Business users self-serve the data they need without requesting engineering support and waiting for dashboards to be built.
• Enterprise-Grade Control: While the access is democratic, Databook utilizes Row Zero’s enterprise security features, such as SSO and restricted permissions to ensure data remains secure.

The Impact: 10x More Visibility, Friction Removed

Row Zero has transformed how teams at Databook access data and make decisions.

Now business teams who used to struggle to get the data they needed can easily open data from Databricks directly in a Row Zero spreadsheet and use their spreadsheet skills to get the insight they need.

By removing friction between questions and answers, Row Zero became part of how Databook runs their business. Teams move faster, leaders have deeper visibility, and insights are no longer locked behind dashboards or data teams.

Row Zero helps Databook use Databricks to make everyday decisions faster, simpler, and at scale. As Galea puts it, Row Zero solved the fundamental problem of "hidden data," making it an essential part of the company's growth engine.